Patricia Davis of Muir named March Volunteer of the Month

Davis has held a volunteer role in her community for as long as she can remember.

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By Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties

Ionia Sentinel - Standard-Ionia, MI

By Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties

Posted Mar. 8, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Updated Mar 8, 2013 at 4:12 PM

By Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties

Posted Mar. 8, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Updated Mar 8, 2013 at 4:12 PM

IONIA COUNTY, Mich.

Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties has named Patricia Davis of Muir its Volunteer of the Month for March. Davis was nominated by the Community Food Network.

Davis has held a volunteer role in her community for as long as she can remember. When she and her husband, John, moved to Muir in 1992, they started volunteering. Over the next two years, they noticed an increase in people needing help in their communities and started speaking to local churches and organizations they belonged to. This included the Eastern Stars and Masons of Lyons, where they raised money and recruited volunteers for the food pantry. When the Davises learned about Feeding America, they raised more funds and began buying van-loads of food at a fraction of the cost.

In 2003, Pat Davis was asked to take over running the Muir Christian Food Pantry. With the aid of her family, she continues to serve the community by providing emergency food to families on demand and hosting a one-day-a-month food distribution to local families who are struggling to provide food on a limited monthly budget.

Davis orders food, arranges pick-up, helps unload and organize shelves, calls people to volunteer or to donate, and raises money for the pantry, putting in between 10 and 25 hours a week.

Since she began 10 years ago, Davis has easily volunteered more than 10,000 hours. Each month, food pantry volunteers serve more than 60 families, and prepare at least 100 food boxes to make a special meal for their neighbors at holiday time. As coordinator, Davis oversees an average of 22 volunteers in the pantry each month, who contribute a minimum of 146 volunteer hours stocking, cleaning and sorting food to make the pantry a vital community asset.

With the aid of her family, Davis also oversees two community gardens to grow fresh produce for the food pantry. One is beside the pantry, where those in need can pick their own produce when available straight from the garden. Another is near the North Plains Baptist Church and is cared for by Davis's family and church members.

Because there was still a need for more fresh produce to help local families, Davis reached out to local growers and farmers to request that leftover produce be donated to the pantry. Last year, when a family wanted to have their own garden but needed new top soil, Davis made the donation herself. The family showed its appreciation by making weekly donations of fresh produce from their garden back to the food pantry, helping other local families enjoy fresh produce.

As part of the Community Food Network, Davis volunteered 48 hours in 2012 attending planning meetings, trainings, and special events. Much of this time was dedicated to the County-wide Food Drive, in which 265 volunteers contributed almost 900 hours collecting more than 6,000 food items and more than $800 in donations.

"Without Pat's dedication to this project and all the work she put into planning and coordinating the project for eight food pantries throughout Ionia County, there is no way this food drive would have been this successful," said one person who nominated Davis as Volunteer of the Month.

Page 2 of 2 - Davis said her parents instilled in their children the importance of helping people. As a child she went along with her dad to help community members; and as a teen she volunteered for anything her school had going, including decorating for community events and dances, helping elderly neighbors, and being a part of 4-H.

As a young adult, Davis volunteered her time to the Eastern Star for its monthly dinners. When she had children, she taught them the importance of community by bringing them along to the special events she was helping with. As an adult, Davis continued to be involved as a 4-H leader to her children, nieces, nephews and neighbors, and chaperoned school outings.

A life-long member of the North Plains Baptist Church where her parents attended and her grandchildren still attend, Davis served as a Sunday school teacher for years, cleaned the church and always helped out new neighbors. She instilled in her children the value of having respect for "the Lord's House" and all that they were lucky to have. She also served as a Girl Scout leader, Boy Scout den mother, and a Republican delegate, several times representing Muir and the families who lived there.

As local business owners, the Davises remember a time when the community was busy and filled with family activities, said another supporter.

"To watch families leave the area or struggle to survive with meager resources only builds Patricia's heartfelt need to help community members where ever she can," this person said. "She has watched the community in which she lives grow and shrink countless times, but you can always count on Pat to give of herself. In fact, Pat's daughters have been forced to 'lay down the law' in order to keep Pat from giving away the clothing on her back. She has such a caring heart and desire to help her community members that Patricia has a hard time knowing her limits. Even though she has struggled with personal health issues over the last year, she continues to serve the community with every ounce of energy she has."

As a thank-you from Volunteer Connections Montcalm-Ionia Counties, Davis received a prize package including gift certificates to the Lamplight Grill, kneeling pads from the Community Food Network, 2-1-1 magnets, and United Way bracelets to share with her food pantry volunteers.